25% of UK's Budget for Welfare Payments

Gordon Brown cannot understand why Socialism has not produced wealth and more jobs

Social security payments will cost almost £200 billion in four years time, accounting for one pound in every four that the Government spends.
By James Kirkup, Telegraph Political Correspondent

Nickie Goomba note: In the UK, cash aid to families and children, unemployment benefits, aid to the physically and mentally disabled, welfare for individuals, pensions, etc. all fall under the umbrella of Social Security. This gigantic amount of money does not even include the massive and moribund National Health Service.

Combined with a debt interest bill of more than £63 billion, items Gordon Brown once called “the costs of failure” will absorb more than a third of all Government spending.

Leaked Treasury documents have revealed the Government’s own bleak forecasts for rising welfare payments and debt interest costs.

The figures, which were not revealed in this year’s Budget, show the scale of the damage that will done to the public finances by rising unemployment and the soaring national debt.

The papers show that the Treasury expects to pay out £193.4 billion on social security benefits in 2013/14. Paying interest on the Government’s outstanding debts will cost £63.4 billion.

Total Government spending in the same year will be £758.3 billion. Welfare and debt interest will be 33.8 per cent of that total.

Around 6 million people in Britain are estimated to claim some sort of employment-based benefits, and the figure is set to rise.

Official figures released on Wednesday showed that unemployment reached has 2.47 million, the highest since 1995. Most economists expect the total to peak at around 3 million early next year.

In his 2000 Budget, Mr Brown described money spent on debt and welfare as “the costs of failure” and lauded Labour’s record in reducing those payments.

He said: "Our promise was to reduce the costs of failure – the bills for unemployment and debt interest – in order to reallocate money to the key public services."

Nickie Goomba note: Don't you love this part? They've cut back what's spent on unemployment and interest on existing debts and used that money to... wait for it... fund MORE GOVERNMENT SERVICES. Why isn't there a revolution over there??

Now, Mr Brown’s own figures reveal how those costs are set to grow dramatically.

Already the largest single item in the budget, by 2013/14 spending on social security will dwarf every other item of Government expenditure.

(More...)

Then There's This 2007 story from The Daily Mail...


During Gordon Brown's student days, he produced a 200-page booklet, stating 'free money is available from social security'

Social security hand-outs should be regarded as "free money", the "so-called welfare State" should be used wherever possible and there's nothing wrong with squatting or being a "parasite".

These are views in a guide on how to scrounge off the State, "con" private firms and "use and abuse the system", published by the man set to become Prime Minister.

It is not a leaked copy of Gordon Brown's manifesto in his campaign to succeed Tony Blair, but a 200-page booklet produced as a socialist student leader in the Seventies, long before "stealth taxes" were invented.

However, cynics will say the seeds of the welfare State boom under Labour can be seen in the document edited by 22-year-old firebrand Brown when Rector of Edinburgh University.

Entitled Alternative Edinburgh, it provides a revealing insight into his attitudes to the State and the law in its suggestions of ways to live for free.

"If you're British and can give an address, free money is available from social security, basic £5.80 per week," it says.

"Social and medical benefits are your right, not charity hand-outs, so never be reticent about claiming them. For whatever the reason the so-called welfare State was brought into being, it can and must be used to its full extent."

Nor is it just the State that can be used to get something for nothing.

"For the experienced parasite the Edinburgh Festival is a gift," the booklet declares, with advice on gatecrashing receptions - "enter via the side door" - and getting a free bath and food at smart hotels.

It suggests: "Sit in the lobby until reception is busy, then walk quickly upstairs or into the lift. Even the plushest hotels have at least one public bathroom to a floor."

And for free food, it recommends: "Con your way to asking for a glass of water or sit beside drinkers and they will feed you for nothing."

Rector Brown's book also advocates sneaking into cut-price works canteens and even "masquerading as a student" in college canteens. "Just say you've forgotten your student card."

An "infallible" method of cheating your way into bring-a-bottle parties is to "use a carrier bag of empty cans with two half-bricks at the bottom".

The man who tried to hide the abolition of the 10p tax rate in his recent Budget was an early student of media manipulation.

"Counter-information is the key to success," students are advised. Direct action like squatting works because it attracts the Press."

The guide helpfully lists local Marxist and anarchist groups.

Job ideas hardly conform to Mr Brown's son-of-the-manse background.

"Factories: not recommended. Early starts and monotonous work," says the booklet.

Girls are advised to work as "go-go girls", the Seventies equivalent of pole dancers.

Or a student could try the capitalist con of ordering the latest model of an in-demand car "reserving the right to cancel" and selling it on for £100 profit while awaiting delivery.

And if you're caught by police while working any scam, don't worry.

"You may think you are guilty but legal advice can show otherwise," says the future Chancellor's guide.

Young Brown had his own "five-year plan": a council takeover of shops, pubs and cafes, a crackdown on car owners and a 50 per cent rise in local taxes to help the working class.

Some may say little has changed.